How do I prepare a resume when one has been self-employed for over twenty years? Thank you.?

To have been successfully self employed in this day and age is quite a feat. I think I would tailor the resume to incorporate aspects of his current job that would benefit the company he wants to work for. Self employment involves being self motivated, intuitive, able to stay on task, a self starter, able to multi-task, awareness of legal issues, tax laws, good interpersonal skills, time manage - if he had employees, there would be management skills. Self employed people, successful self employed people have SO many marketable skills. They bring so much to the table. Wish him good luck from me!

He needs to target his resume by highlighting those skills and accomplishments that will most be used/needed in whatever he is going to pursue. What are his career goals? Focus on those in the resume. Some things will fit better than others. Here is a web site with A LOT of free information, too.

I would suggest you take some professional help (for FREE) from MS word which has inbuilt resume templates for making your resume. You can also follow the step-by-step instruction to make your free resume, using the resume builder provided with MS office. Resume styles differ according to profession, and sources of sample resumes are available in my profile, check my profile for more details, all the best :)

Write the resume as though he had been employed by the company and was not the owner. You can figure out a title - like "General Manager", etc. All the skills he has developed over the years on his own will transfer dirtectly to an employer - as long as the skill sets needed are the same. I'm in HR and one of our service lines is home services; we get a lot of trades people coming out of self employment to our company. The resumes that are the most appealing are those that are written in a professional format.

As a business owner, I am sure that your husband has learned many transferable skills. Do up the resume as you normally would, with the Objective, Skills Summary, Work Experience, Education & Training, Hobbies, References, etc. Concentrate on the skills that match with the job he is applying for. Remember, hevery resuem should be tailored to each individual job you are applying for. Good Luck!

He will have acquired a lot of skills in 20 years of running his ownn business. In place of work experience, have him do a brief outline of several acheivements during his operations. List things such as: Increase sales volume 20% during three month ad campaign, or successfully adopted computer controlled inventory system, or instituted cost savings measures, resulting in continued operation during dot com bust of the 90s. The emphasis may be more on sales, or manufacturing or ...?. Definetly do not suggest that he lie, or even exaggerate. But, think of the skills that might apply to the potential job, and find the skills and accomplishmnents that apply.

Get the job description. What is wanted? What in your husbands job experience matches that? Be creative.

Tell it like it is. Describe briefly all the duties he performed. From sales to P&L, payroll, etc. if those apply. Most importantly, anything that can be applied to the position. They want to know what he has to offer them.

The purpose of a resume is to tell a potential employer "here's what I have done and what I can do for you". The fact that he did it for himself is irrelevant. Especially if he was successful at it for 20 years.